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Not wanting to get caught up in the winter storm headed this way, the Detroit Lions have changed their travel plans for Sunday's game against the New York Giants (1 p.m., Fox).

Rather than fly into Newark, N.J., on Saturday, like they typically would do for a road game, the Lions are flying out today.

"It looks like it’s a pretty bad storming coming in," Lions coach Jim Caldwell said. "You’re not quite sure, but it doesn’t look good. We may be delayed tomorrow, which we don’t want to be delayed tomorrow because we have a routine we’d like to stay in, if we can help it. Tomorrow, the way the weather looks, supposedly, it looks like it could knock us out of that routine. So we’re going to leave earlier.”

Because of the change in travel plans, the Lions will have to switch hotels during their stay in New Jersey. The Miami Dolphins, who play the New York Jets on Saturday, are staying at the Lions' preferred pre-game hotel on Friday night.

But Caldwell said the Lions won't experience any other disruption to their regular pre-game routine. They'll go through their regular Saturday walkthrough in New Jersey -- typically, they do that at their Allen Park practice facility before leaving -- and have meetings as regularly scheduled at the hotel that night.

The forecast for East Rutherford, N.J., home of MetLife Stadium, calls for temperatures in the 40s and a wintry mix of snow and rain on Saturday, and temps in the 50s with a 90% chance of rain at game time Sunday.

The Lions opened the vents at their practice facility this week in an effort to simulate the temperature for Sunday's game. On Thursday, they did a series of "wet-ball" drills, wiping down a football with a wet towel to approximate the precipitation.

"(Nothing changes) other than the fact that, typically, you’re off on Friday evening. So we’re traveling a bit during their off time," Caldwell said. "That’s the only thing that’ll really change for us. Other than that, our schedule will be pretty much the same as it’s been."